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dorsal striatum

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Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 16, 2023·4 min read

Is the Brain Wired Differently in People With Addiction?

Study reveals functional connectivity abnormalities in brain areas associated with reward processing, habit formation, and decision-making in those with substance use disorders and addiction.

This shows a red skull surrounded by words associated with revenge

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 27, 2022·5 min read

Revenge: The Neuroscience of Why It Feels Good in the Moment, but May Be a Bad Idea in the Long Run

Researchers explore why revenge may feel good in the moment, but often results in mixed emotions later.

This shows brain scans from the study

Featured Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·August 21, 2020·4 min read

Why Obeying Orders Can Make Us Do Terrible Things

Coercion to perform detrimental actions against others reduces empathy and guilt, a new study reports. The findings may explain why people are able to commit immoral acts that go against their ethical stance when coerced.

This shows a bat

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·March 21, 2020·3 min read

How the brain controls the voice

Oscillations in the fronto-striatal network predict whether a bat is about to use echolocation or vocalized communication.

This shows the dorsolateral striatum

Featured Neuroscience

·February 27, 2020·5 min read

How the brain forms habits

As the brain starts to develop new habits, activity in the dorsolateral striatum increases. As the activity bursts increase, the habit becomes stronger. Inhibiting neural activity with optogenetics reduces habit behaviors in mice.

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Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 13, 2019·3 min read

Formation of habitual use drives cannabis addiction

Individual differences in the striatum of habitual cannabis users distinguish between who is at increased risk of addiction and cannabis use disorder.

food brain

Featured Neuroscience

·December 27, 2018·3 min read

Your Brain Rewards You Twice Per Meal

Upon eating, dopamine is released in the brain at two different times, during ingestion and when the food reaches our stomach, researchers report.

neurons

Featured Neuroscience

·June 25, 2018·3 min read

Nicotine Alters Neurotransmission in Habit Forming Brain Region

According to a new study, nicotine reduces dorsal striatal output, underlying the urge to smoke and making it difficult to quite the addiction.

schematic

Featured Neuroscience

·November 20, 2017·1 min read

Realistic Rodent Model of Drug Addiction

New rodent model helps researchers discover it is ingenuity and not habit that sustains addiction.

Image shows the location of the striatum in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 23, 2017·3 min read

Recreational Cocaine: Brain Area Associated With Addiction Activated Earlier Than Thought

According to researchers, people who consider themselves to be recreational cocaine users may be closer to addiction than they think.

Image shows the location of the prefrontal cortex in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 1, 2017·4 min read

Ill Gotten Gains Are Worth Less in the Brain

According to a new study, the brain responds less to rewards gained from immoral acts than it does to ethically earned rewards.

Image shows how the DART neuron drug delivery system works.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Neuroscience Videos Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 6, 2017·5 min read

Homing System Delivers Drugs to Specific Neurons

Researchers have developed a new method to deliver drugs to specific neurons throughout the brain.

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